By Charles Brown: WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis insists he isn’t looking past replacement opponent Danielito Zorrilla in his Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing debut this Saturday night June 17 on DAZN at the Smoothie King Center of New Orleans, Louisiana.
(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom)
Prograis is arguably the best fighter at 140 and has been for five years. His only loss was a controversial twelve-round majority decision against Josh Taylor in London, England in 2019. If this fight had been staged in neutral territory, Prograis would have likely won, as he beat Taylor worse than Teofimo Lopez.
As the best at 140, Regis has been shunned by top fighters for years, and that won’t change, even though he signed Eddie Hearn.
Programs avoided like the plague
The British promoter cannot force reluctant fighters like Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez or Gervonta Davis to fight Prograis.
Prograis won’t last long with Hearn as he finds out what Regis’ latest promoter discovered on his own. The best fighters refuse to fight Prograis because they don’t want to lose. Prograis would beat everyone at 140, including swagger Teofimo.
It will be a homecoming for Prograis, 34, who recently won the vacant WBO light welterweight title last November with an eleventh-round knockout victory over Jose Zepeda.
Devin Haney had briefly shown interest in fighting Prograis, but has been quiet lately, suggesting he isn’t going in that direction. His dad, Bill Haney, sat down with Rank Promoter Bob Arum this week to go over several options he had, and Prograis is obviously NOT one of them.
You can see The despair of Prograis is already creeping in last Friday when he showed irritation at Adrien Broner for not mentioning him by name after his win over Bill Hutchinson.
Broner is a far cry from the fighter he once was, and he won’t give Prograis the money he could get fighting any of the affected fighters like Haney, Teofimo Lopez and Gervonta Davis.
Regis needs the best names
Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) needs to look good to continue building his popularity. Still, he can’t afford to be out of this awesome world as he will scare away suitors like Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia, Subriel Matias and Josh Taylor. This is the dilemma facing Prograis. Teo is not worth mentioning as he says he is now retired.
Regis’ best chance of getting a notable opponent would be against IBF champion Subriel Matias if his promoter Eddie Hearn can entice the hard-hitting Puerto Rican fighter to face him.
If not, it could be another unnamed opponent, who will not suit Prograis as he may soon look for another promoter if his three fights with Hearn do not attract interest. It’s a bit difficult to do when you’re up against dark opposition with little skill.
Another problem Prograis has is that if his three fights under his Matchroom contract don’t attract fan interest, Hearn probably won’t re-sign him. It doesn’t matter if Prograis wins all three competitions. His contract will not be extended by Matchroom through no fault of his own.
We saw that happen with Demetrius Andrade, who has all of his fights with Hearn but was always dropped at the end of his contract because American fans weren’t thrilled to see him beat the weak opposition fed to him.
Unfortunately for Prograis, his fight with Zorrilla probably won’t create much buzz this Saturday night on DAZN and probably won’t bring in more than the tiniest trickle of new subscribers. Fans who have heard of Zorrilla know him from his loss to Arnold Barboza Jr. That’s it.
“I don’t look past him, but you have it in your mind that there’s massive fighting out there, but I know I won’t make it unless I mind my own business. Saturday,” Prograis said. “Until then, I don’t think of anyone else because you might not make it.
“I didn’t look too much [Zorrilla], to be honest. I’ve seen it a bit, but I feel like I’m the best at 140. I’m on top, and I feel like you need to study me. They must be worried about me. I do not have
to worry about them,” Prograis told iFL TV.
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